Worst of Both Worlds

In the recent article about zero day exploits brokers, I found something that surprised me a bit: iOS exploits are better paid than Android ones. iOS is a closed source operating system; although it is harder to learn about its inner workings, it is also harder to fix it quickly. On the other hand, Android is based on Linux, which is open source; hundreds of eyes are looking at potential security holes in code and new versions are "released early, released often". OS should be as fortress and exploits should be rare and expensive, but it is quite opposite.

Western Customers, Chinese Workers

Mike Daisy did a great deal of damage not just to "This American Life" radio show, but also to Chinese workers by fabricating the facts about work conditions at Foxconn. Now it would be harder to convince people about poor working conditions there, although other journalists observed the same.

So does Apple deserve bashing or not?

Three Months With Ice Cream Sandwich

I heard many complaints about "bloated" Android versions made by phone vendors. Here is the thing. Before I got Nexus S, I occasionally used my wife's mobile with TouchWiz. It was quite nice. When I got plain vanilla Gingerbread it felt like crap. Design was ugly and accompanying applications left a lot to be desired.

Upgrading to 4.0 was huge step forward in every respect. Whole platform got new, fresh design. It didn't look like visual ripoff of something else, but rather it had look of its own. Most parts were enriched and felt like a mature product.

But in most relationships, as time passes, you start to notice little annoyances, asking for quarrel.

Windows 8 Has a Lot of Apps Already

"There's an app for that", says old iPhone commercial, and yes, today's mobile world is unimaginable without apps and stores. Success of platform is measured by the size of its "ecosystem", and many wonder is Windows 8 coming too late to create one.

But why do we have apps in the first place? Before smartphone boom, we had applications on desktops so it makes sense to have them on mobile. However, there is one important step between: web applications. Dynamic HTML applications are replacing more and more of traditional desktop applications and they are becoming better at it. Heck, most of mobile application that I use have web counterparts that are even better. So why apps?

Facebook and Google+, Please Reduce Clutter

One of the reasons why I hate Facebook is noise. I joined because I wanted to know what's going on with people that were dear to me, but with whom I lost contact. What I got is:

• dozens of funny and "funny" pictures
• bunch of posts about articles somebody is reading now
• YouTube and everybody else's tubes
• children games played by adults

Are Twitter's Days Numbered?

I must admit that I'm latecomer, I signed up only this year. I found some friends, added some more people who I found interesting, read some tweets. And I just don't get it. I found exactly the same type of people as on the other social networks and exactly the same type of messages: look at this funny picture, big thanks to my fans, our product rules, here is my new blog .

In the old days, when feature phones were rarity and social networks young, some ingenious guys came up with idea how to make (micro)blogging on dumb-phones viable. Twitter allowed two-way communication within people using short and simple text messages, available on every phone. Although it started as blogging platform, Twitter exploded with the rise of the social networks, thanks to its low entry threshold.

Smartphone Patent Wars as Wildlife Documentary

Ants are hard-working, dogs are loyal, foxes are cunning. We tend to match patterns of animal behavior with human ones and label them so - we anthropomorphize them. However, animals are neither good nor bad; they just are. Each species found ecological niche for its own survival. We also tend to anthropomorphize everything else, companies included.

So companies are greedy or inventive or "not evil" or patent trolls. In reality, they just try to survive. Main purpose of the company is to make money. People often forget that and expect companies to be noble, fair, or consistent. That's not purpose of the company; don't be disappointed if they behave differently.

Dawning of iPad 3

Apple will today announce their new device so I don't really see a point in writing about anything else.

I'm not so interested in hardware; I wonder what will Apple add to new version of iOS. There were couple of features missing that are must for serious tablet OS.

It is really convenient to have tablet at home. Instead of going to another room with PC or holding hot and bulky laptop in my lap, I can enjoy surfing in a more civilized way. We can all share it as needed. We could share it if had some notion of users, but it doesn't.

Not So Mobile Google

The maker of the Android must be awesome mobile company.

Tried Google+ on mobile? Nice for reading, not so nice when you start to create content. Try URL sharing. Web client, when you share URL, makes a nice thumbnail and a summary. Mobile client just spits plain URL. OK, something to improve in the next version. I'll just edit it and it'll be fine. Wait! No editing! Not for mobile post nor desktop posts. Once you create it, it stays like that until you reach desktop. If you screw something, it stays screwed, unless you delete it.

Ubuntu for Android vs Cloud

Ubuntu for Android idea is simple: your smartphone is pretty powerful computer that you already have with yourself. Plug it into the nearest dock with display and keyboard. Have your applications and data wherever you are.

Does last sentence rings any bell? Have your applications and data wherever you are. Tell it to somebody, and he will probably think that you are talking about cloud services combined with HTML 5 applications. Both solutions are competing for the same market. What is the advantage of one over the other?